Lacking just a few things

I had the opportunity yesterday to use my brother-in-law's lounge tickets (he couldn't make it) which means watching the game in relative comfort ? and being fed to boot.

It was a toss-up between that and watching my 11-year-old son play for a team he's recently transferred to, for the first time.

I opted to watch my son.

Him and his mates played in driving rain, high winds, and bitterly cold weather. I was wrapped up like I was going to the Arctic and was still freezing.

His team won 12-1. He scored twice and had a good game.

My point is that he, and his teamates, and even more so the poor lads who were on the wrong end of a 12-1 hiding, showed plenty of the traits I list below:

Desire, determination, the will to win, guts, the bottle to never give up, even in horrendous conditions.....

What a pity that even a couple of these traits weren't evident in anyone wearing a blue shirt at Goodison yesterday.

To be beaten by a journeyman team like Stoke is an absolute nightmare. To be beaten by them without so much as a whimper is a disgrace!

Maybe I should invite the team to my son's next match because I tell you, those 11-year-olds could actually teach the Everton players more than a thing ot two if yesterday's performance was anything to go by... and amazingly my son only dreams of one thing ? wearing that shirt and playing for the club!!!

It's sad isn't it, for the first time in my life fans are openly questioning whether or not to burden their kids with the family heritage of supporting the mighty blues. Moyes and Kenwright you have a lot to answer for, you have both turned us into an embarrassment and a joke. The longer it continues the more our heritage is lost.

Really? I remember the heritage and tradition being questioned just as much if not more when we spent the whole time under Smith perilously close to the trap door. All the same rhetoric but with much more cause back then.

An embarrassment and a joke?! We're 10th for God sake, you're speaking as if we just got releagated having been thumped on the last day 8-0 by Wigan!!

For the first time in ages we have 3 players in the England squad. We also have some really decent young players in a team that feels like it failing to not be in the top 10.

I know Sunday was bloody depressing and yes Moyes is unbelievably negative and predictable but he is only using the same tactics that hauled us up from being certain relegation fodder to a club that most other penniless Premier League teams aspire to be.

James, all the things you are talking about are very subjective. I still see the fire in him when we score a goal and the passion he feels when something does or doesn't go our way.

You might be right, things may have gone a bit stale and more than anything this is what i attribute the malcontent that fans are feeling to.

Maybe it is time for a change, depends on who that change would be. But things are simply not half as bad as most of the naysayers on here are claiming. I think people are bored more than anything but it riles me when i hear people claiming that the end has come when we sit in 10th with a reasonable squad of players. Wasn't that long ago that our centrebacks cumulative age was about 80 and we had the likes of Ginola and gazza trying to turn back the clock. Now that was embarrassing!

I thought I would mention a couple of points that I feel let us down badly at the moment. This has been brought on by watching a few other teams and seeing what they do that we don't:

Employ a midfielder who can actually strike a ball and have a few shots! Last night, Charlie Adam had more shots on target from outside the box than we have done all season. Same with Clint Dempsey, who made space and shot at every opportunity. We don't even enter the raffle when it comes to having a pop...
Can you imagine Fellaini, Osman, Cahill or Rodwell constantly hitting the target from 25 yards??

Leave at least one player up front with pace when defending a corner; it will stretch the opposition and you can break quickly.

Get the fullbacks and centre backs to bring the ball out, don't just hit it 50 yards every damn time, bring it and get involved.

Make a point of appealing every time one of your men is fouled or complain if a decision goes against you. Act together don't wimp out, let the ref know you dont agree (within reason) show some balls.

Finally, play the percentage game with knock-ons, free-kicks, etc. We give up and never expect anything to come off.
end of rant

Wake the hell up. We are 10 points away from the top 6, and we are getting vcloser to 17th with only 5 points left to differ. How can anyone defend what we have done this season, Moyes himself has thrown away a top goalscorer for free, given that strikers are supposed to be expensive, only not when leaving Everton????????????? Watching the Stoke game two things struck me the most, how we did not keep Arteta despite his want away feelings and how Yakubu now scoring up to 10 goals this season was allowed to leave for as good as nothing. Tell me what the hell do we get for 1 million????????? The fee we sold Yakubu for.

Face the truth, Moyes has fucked up this year, especially with his transfers in and out of this club, and I include Pienaar in that.

Now knowing all this are you still keen to defend Moyes, for all the bad things he has done this calendar year, I want him out, based on selling Yakubu and Arteta without getting ANY replacement in at ALL.You just can not get passed that, idiotic at best.

There are some things you can definitely blame Moyes for and others you have to look elsewhere.

Transfers, I will not and can not agree that Moyes would willingly reduce his squad and bring in no-one to replace him, no matter how much he is on a week. the leaked e-mails seem to back this up, as it was the bank calling the shots (allegedly)

Also Jimmy, the year we finished 4th, we were closer to the relagtion zone than we were to finishing top, so 5 points here, 10 points from this place means nothing.

The only thing that matters is the position you are in when the final whistle blows on that 38th league game.

Would you have even mentioned Yakubu if he hadn't scored 4 this weekend? Goldfish memories some people and are easily distracte....... oh look a squirrel!

Come on Tony and Brian let?s see some brotherly love here, you remind me of the squabbling Williams sisters! And to Tony J Williams it?s a bit hypocritical of you given that you couldn't be arsed to go the game either and offered your ticked to Brian!

Steve Cotton #8 We won a corner in the last minute of the first half and three of our defenders were stood on the halfway line until jags clicked on we were 1-0 down, this is the type of negative bollocks he installs in the team, just like when Coleman broke away from a Stoke corner only to see he had his nearest Everton player 30 yards behind him as we leave everyone including midgets like Osman and men like Bily who don't head a ball in our own area during corners.Moyes bleats on about needing a cutting edge but what do you expect when your defence and midfield play so deep it leaves the forwards without any support meaning the likes of Saha has virtually playing in midfield this season.If these rumours of investment ever come true he deserves a bite for one season but you can bet Moyes would get found out then as him and his other defensive boys don't have a clue about attack Never have, never will.

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